“Supertall skyscrapers and glamorous museums can boost architects’ reputations or put a struggling industrial town back on the map, but as far as architecture is concerned, one type of building should never be overlooked: the theater,” writes Megan Barber in Thursday’s (1/3) Curbed.com. “As the backbone of urban culture, theaters in the United States have been gathering places for centuries. From operas to ballets to movies, the arts required buildings that were as beautiful as the performances they housed…. Today, the theater remains a crucial part of a city’s lifeblood, even as the types of performing arts have expanded…. While this new class of auditoriums, performing arts centers, and concert halls prove that a theater can take many forms, they all underscore one belief: Now—more than ever—the arts matter…. We searched far and wide across the U.S. for the most architecturally significant theaters…. These are the 21 most beautiful theaters in America.” Concert halls cited in the article include the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Kansas City Symphony; Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home of the Nashville Symphony; the Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra; New World Center, home of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL; and others.
Posted January 4, 2019
In photo: Interior of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo courtesy of the Nashville Symphony
